“FBI
special agent Julianna James is a top-notch negotiator who has never lost a
hostage. Surely, she can manage to take care of her much younger sister,
Dottie, who showed up unannounced to live with Julianna while she finished her senior
year of high school.
A former sniper with the 75th Ranger
Regiment, Clay Snyder left the army after a tragic incident that he can't get
past. Now he's working as a high school resource officer until he can figure
out what to do with the rest of his life.
Their paths cross when Julianna is
called in to negotiate a courtroom hostage situation involving Clay's sister.
Impressed and a bit intimidated by the calm, capable woman with the dark hair
and blue eyes, Clay invites her to speak at his school. Dottie's school.
But as the anniversary of a school
shooting from Julianna's past approaches, it becomes clear that her perfect
record is about to be tested and that Dottie is at risk. If Julianna and Clay
can't figure out who's behind the attacks, more innocent people will die--and
Julianna just might be one of them.”
Series: Book #2 in the “Extreme Measures” series. Review of Book #1 Here!
Spiritual Content- Isaiah 41:10 at the beginning; A few Scriptures are quoted,
mentioned, read, & prayed; Going to a Bible study; Prayers, Thanking God,
& Blessings over food; Talks about God, Him being in control, your choices,
forgiveness, & praying; ‘H’s are not capitalized when referring to God; Clay
is mad at God & thinks He doesn’t listen so he stopped praying (*Spoiler*
towards the end, he naturally prays *End of Spoiler*); Many mentions of God,
His plan, & forgiving others; Mentions of prayers, praying, thanking God, &
blessings over food; Mentions of Heaven (& a little boy dreaming that God
let him see a bit of Heaven); A few mentions of Bible reading & a Bible
study; A couple mentions of churches & church going; A mention of a
blessing;
*Note: One of the point-of-views
is of someone who says she has a mission to kill “those who’d been destined
to die for the purpose”, hears voices inside her head and answers them, &
at one time, says “the spirits were with me” in her plan (*Spoiler* Her
psychiatrist groomed her into fulfilling a revenge mission *End of Spoiler*); A
mention of Clay battling his inner demons; A mention of an evil woman.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘duh’, a ‘eat crow’, an ‘idiot’, a
‘moron’, a ‘rats’, a ‘what the heck’, two ‘gah’s, two forms of ‘suck up’, three
forms of ‘dumb’, eight ‘shut up’s, and twenty-one forms of ‘stupid’; Eye
rolling; A handful of mentions of curses being alluded to & replaced with “so-and-so”;
Hostage situations, negotiating, & going into the buildings/rooms (semi-detailed);
Recalling a school shooting & seeing a death (up to semi-detailed); Fighting
(up to semi-detailed); Being run off the road & a car wreck (semi-detailed);
Being threatened, held at gunpoint and knife-point, being drugged, & a kidnapping
(semi-detailed); Seeing others shot, Injuries, & Blood/Bleeding (including
someone harming themself, up to semi-detailed); Grieving over a loved one’s death;
Name-calling & Dealing with a bully; Throwing up; *Spoiler* When Julianna
was fifteen, she stole a car and landed in juvie; Prior to that, there was a
verbally abusive family member, Julianna has guilt about, because he had a
heart attack after she spoke rude/mean things to him *End of Spoiler*; All
about many, many mentions of hostage situations, shootings, school shootings, gunfire,
guns/weapons/explosives, threats, murder-suicides, killing, bodies, &
deaths (semi-detailed); Many mentions of injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, &
fighting (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a plane hijacking & killing
passengers; Mentions of a daughter shooting her parents in their sleep (up to semi-detailed);
Mentions of someone being in a psychiatric hospital for attempting suicide (by setting
herself on fire) & depression (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of
terrorists & corrupted team members; Mentions of ransom & a kidnapping;
Mentions of break-ins; Mentions of stealing; Mentions of prisons & juvenile
detention centers; Mentions of PTSD & nightmares (barely-above-not-detailed);
Mentions of verbally and physically abusive family members & boyfriend (including
Julianna’s mother and one woman says that “all men hit their women at some
point, but that doesn’t mean we kick them to the curb”, barely-above-not-detailed);
Mentions of a teen getting kicked out by her parents & teens feeling not wanted
by their parents; Mentions of anti-law-enforcement issues, people disrespecting
officers & those having beef with law enforcement (this is discussed and
mentioned in a few places often and Juliana says it’s a very small percentage
of officers and agents that get jaded and don’t make good choices); Mentions of
teens bullying a girl, getting her drunk, & then making her drive which
made her get into a wreck; Mentions of bullies, bullying, & name-calling; Mentions
of hatred; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of drinks, drinking, drunks,
DUIs, & bars; Mentions of drugs, poisons, & being drugged/poisoned; Mentions
of throwing up; Mentions of divorces, parents leaving, a wife leaving her
husband for his best friend, & a mom seeing another man before her divorce
was final; A few mentions of an assassination & suicide mission; A few
mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of teens skipping school; A couple
mentions of wars; A couple mentions of watching for those with suicidal
tendencies or going-to-shoot-up-the-school tendencies; A couple mentions of physically
abusive father & his son saying that he would shoot him if the son became a
police officer; A couple mentions of a drug bust; A couple mentions of cheating;
A mention of an abuser killing his girlfriend; A mention of a tattoo;
*Note: Mentions of car brands; A couple
mentions of sports teams; A couple mentions of Google; A mention of man with GQ
good-looks; A mention of wanting to kick bad-guy butt.
Sexual Content- A hand kiss, two
cheek kisses, a top-of-the-head kiss, a neck kiss, and a barely-above-not-detailed
kiss; Touches, Embraces, Warmth, Shivers, & Hand-Holding (barely-above-not-detailed);
Noticing & Staring (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of an obsessive, possessive,
& abusive ex-boyfriend; Mentions of exes & girlfriends/boyfriends; A couple
mentions of wondering if a woman is a man’s mistress & if her baby is his; A
couple mentions of kisses; A couple mentions of someone being crazy in love
with another (one-sided); A mention of a teen whistling at Julianna; A couple
mentions of dates & dates; Love, falling in love, & the emotions.
-Julianna Jameson, age 33
-Clay Fox
P.O.V. switches between them, Felicity, Dottie (all in 3rd
person), & someone else (1st person)
291 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
New
Teens-
{Add a
full star for older girls with an interest in the law enforcement field.}
There’s something about a book starting
off with hostage negotiating that just gets your blood pumping.
I found this book to be so
enjoyable and I can easily say that this is now my favorite book by this
author. Possibly even her best book, in my opinion.
Suspense books with hostage negotiating
always piques my interest and that was one aspect of this book that I really liked
seeing. Let me list off some of the other things I enjoyed as well:
-A sister relationship, I repeat,
a sister relationship. I love stories with close siblings, but this one really
takes the cake because they live together and both sisters care for each other
so much.
-The romance elements weren’t
heavy at all. Julianna and Clay are interested in each other pretty quick, but
neither of them act on it because of their pasts. Which that might annoy some
people, but I was here for it because that meant the suspense part of the plot
was the main focus most of the time. They’re both insecure because of said
pasts, but Julianna knows that her insecurity isn’t from God and I loved that
that was mentioned. Atta girl!
-Speaking of the faith content. This
might be one of the best Christian Fiction Suspense books that handled the
whole “if God is in control, why does He allow bad things to happen?” question.
Bottom line is that we live in a sinful world and, yes, God is in control, but people
have choices, including the choice to believe in Him or not and that your choices
have consequences. The faith content really made this book even better to me.
-And finally: Typically when I
read a suspense book, I know the formula, I know how it’s going to go. This one
I didn’t and I was truly on the edge of my seat the entire time because I didn’t
know what would happen next. The story was under 300 pages, but it felt like the
perfect length.
I’ve read a lot of books by this
author, but I don’t think I could say I had a favorite book by her—now I can
say that I do. This was a very enjoyable read and I really liked Julianna and
Dottie—and Clay too, I suppose. Julianna just stole the show, honestly. ;)
See y’all on Friday with a new
review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this
author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free
from the Publisher (Revell) for this honest review.
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